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Robert Nozick's The Allegory Of The Cave

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“What else can matter to us, other than how our lives feel from the inside?" (Nozick) This question was asked by Robert Nozick in response to an Experience Machine that would give a person any experience that they desired. Once plugged into this Experience Machine you cannot turn back to reality, you would not be able to know if you were in a type of a never ending vivid dream. This scenario has led to the debate over what the correct choice would be if you had the choice to plug into the machine. Nozick claimed that people should not plug into the Experience Machine. Some of his reasons are, "It is only because we first want to do the actions that we want the experiences of doing them." (Nozick, 43), "Someone floating in a tank is an indeterminate blob." (Nozick, 43), and "There is no actual contact with any deeper reality, though the experience of it can be simulated." (Nozick, 43). At first I thought “I would plug in! I would no longer feel any …show more content…

When he goes back to tell what he has discovered to the other prisoners they do not believe him and do not want to leave. They would rather stay in the cave where they believe life is perfect. Those prisoners would be the people who decide to plug in. Once they choose to plug in the won’t want to leave. For instance, if they were to only be plugged in for 10 years and then be unplugged to either choose their next 10 years or stay unplugged, they would most likely choose to plug back in. They would choose this because that is where they believe life is perfect and the would rather choose to go back to that than go out into the real world and risk what they already have. The people who do not plug in would be the prisoner who escaped, in the sense that he choose the unexpected. He risked it all by exploring the real world. Most people would not choose to not plug in. They are doing the unexpected and would rather live in the real

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